@AndSmelly
In case you haven't noticed, we have a lot of life going on at the moment. We have turmoil, the horrors of year 6, the preparation for building work, lots of training at work for me and travel for himself, plus large boy's unmentionable leg (post to follow later when it's hopefully resolved), running frustrations,… Continue reading How to cope when it’s all a bit much
Since last May or so, I've been participating in a leadership development program at work. It's been an.... interesting process. After self-awareness and emotional intelligence, we've moved on to situational leadership. I've noticed a pattern in the way that I've reacted to each new area. It seems that I don't like it when I don't… Continue reading Learning hurts
Disclaimer, I wrote this post in summer 2019. However, I wanted to share it again because today is International Women's day. My thoughts and feelings about these women haven't changed. They remain examples that I work towards. There was a question on my Twitter feed a couple of weeks ago, about real women who inspire.… Continue reading Inspirational Women
At work over the last couple of years I've been lucky enough to have had some amazing mentoring and leadership development opportunities. Through 2021 and the start of 2022, I was involved in a one-to-one mentoring program, which was exciting and scary. Then, mid-way through 2022 I was surprised to be nominated for a much… Continue reading Self-Discovery and Understanding
I'm very thankful to know many lovely folks from the USA. Some are friends from my university years, some are ex-colleagues, some are current co-workers and some are virtual friends I know from blogging. I'm thankful for them all. Having had a bit of a writers block lately and felt sorry for myself, I'm particularly… Continue reading Thankful
Wow, after two years of a virtual replacement, we're back in person for our annual workshop for the leaders in technical writing at my company. I'm almost at the end of the week of intense discussions on every possible topic. I'm exhausted at this stage. It started with a 7am alarm on Sunday, then a… Continue reading When a Work Trip Goes Wrong
This is a work post. I don't post about work very much because, well, it's generally pretty boring to people outside of my domain. I mean, seriously, I work in software, duller than dull right? Most people think software development is as obscure and highly technical as chemistry (doh, PhD chemist here too, double trouble).… Continue reading Dilemma Resolved
This isn't going to become a regular thing, long-time readers have probably picked up that I (we) am (are) not religious in the slightest. That doesn't mean that I don't think the bible or any other religious text of any denomination or faith don't have value, truth, or wisdom. They absolutely do. So, here goes.… Continue reading Love Thyself
I've been reading How to Fail: Everything I’ve Ever Learned From Things Going Wrong by Elizabeth Day recently. I'm not sure how I stumbled across it but it's a really interesting read. https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Fail-Everything-Learned-Things-ebook/dp/B07H3DRJG3 It's definitely taking precedence over my reading homework for my future leaders initiative: https://twitter.com/AndSmelly/status/1540448254504194049?s=20&t=0p0irTiB6Kxc1tDvY5iXnw I think we all dwell on our "failures"… Continue reading Three failures (and why that’s a good thing)
Last year, I wrote a series of posts about an exciting and scary mentoring opportunity at work. That came to an end in February, eventually unproductive but very interesting. Then, just over a month ago, something much scarier happened. The beginning It started with an email from the HR training lead for Europe. Now, emails… Continue reading Exciting and much scarier
Smelly Socks and Garden Peas 